Future Skills Education
Finland emerges as the new global leader in providing future-skills education for youth, according to the Worldwide Educating for the Future Index (WEFFI)
Finland’s strong policy, teaching and socio-economic environments propel it to top of 50 economies in the second edition of the Worldwide Educating for the Future Index (WEFFI), produced by The Economist Intelligence Unit and commissioned by the Yidan Prize Foundation
Switzerland and New Zealand follow closely behind, the latter having taken the top spot in 2017’s inaugural ranking
Ghana leads among low-income economies, based on the strength of its strategy to teach future skills and supportive assessment frameworks
The UK ranks tenth, down four spots from its 2017 ranking, hurt by low scores on quality of teacher education and government expenditure on education
The Worldwide Educating For the Future Index (WEFFI) 2018: Top ten economies
Future-focused approaches to education must move beyond rigid, exam-based methods and encompass problem-based learning, innovative teaching methods and broader themes of global citizenship. Progress on transforming the world’s education systems to meet these goals is uneven, according to a new report released today by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
Themed “Building tomorrow’s global citizens”, the white paper is commissioned by the Yidan Prize Foundation and based on the findings of the second annual Worldwide Educating for the Future Index. With a focus on young people aged 15-24 in 50 economies, it measures three pillars of education systems—policy approaches, teaching conditions and broader gauges of societal freedom and openness—as a means of readying young people to meet the challenges of work and society in future. It remains the only major ranking to assess inputs to education systems and stands in contrast to measures like the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment, which looks at exam-like outputs.
With comprehensive policies, well-trained teachers and strong assessment frameworks to test for future skills, small, wealthy, globally connected economies like Finland, Canada and Singapore comprise the top performers. But greater wealth is not a panacea: Ghana punches well above its weight when measured against GDP per head, ranking 25th overall, while Mexico, Colombia and the Philippines merit favourable mention for their work in policy areas, as does Costa Rica for its efforts to adapt teaching to the demands of tomorrow. On the other hand, Norway, despite ranking first in the socio-economic category, is dragged down by a poor performance on indicators such as assessment frameworks to support educating for future skills. The US also punches below its economic weight.
The Worldwide Educating For the Future Index (WEFFI) 2018: Top low-income economies
Michael Gold, editor of the report said, “The second edition of the index shows that while education systems are starting to recognise the importance of holistic approaches to learning, many gaps still exist. Economies around the world must strengthen assessment frameworks, regularise reviews of curriculums and improve teaching conditions. Perhaps most importantly, the recent retrenchment away from globalisation by many economies may threaten students’ abilities to develop an inquisitive mind-set and tackle the big problems of tomorrow.”
More details and an executive summary of the report are available here. Readers can also download short written snapshots of four economies covered in the index: Finland, Ghana, the US and Vietnam.
Press enquiries:
Michael Gold, editor, Thought Leadership, Asia-Pacific
+852-2585-3886
MichaelGold@economist.com
Maria Levitov, director, EM Advisors
+447553092429, +442070027857
levitov@em-comms.com
Note to editors:
The Worldwide Educating For the Future Index 2019 assesses the extent to which education systems are equipping youth aged 15-24 with the skills needed in future. It covers 50 economies representing 93% of global GDP and over 6bn people. The economies were selected for balance across multiple factors, including income levels, population size and geographic representation. The index includes 21 indicators across three thematic categories: policy environment, teaching environment and socio-economic environment. A full explanation of the methodology can be found in the appendix of the report.
About The Economist Intelligence Unit
The EIU is the thought leadership, research and analysis division of The Economist Group and the world leader in global business intelligence for executives. We uncover novel and forward-looking perspectives with access to over 650 expert analysts and editors across 200 countries worldwide. More information can be found on www.eiuperspectives.economist.com. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
About the Yidan Prize Foundation
Founded in 2016 by Dr Charles CHEN Yidan, a core founder of Tencent, the Yidan Prize has a mission of creating a better world through education. It consists of two awards, the Yidan Prize for Education Research and the Yidan Prize for Education Development. Yidan Prize Laureates each receives a gold medal and a total sum of HK$30m, half of which is a cash prize while the other half is a project fund. To ensure transparency and sustainability, the prize is managed by Yidan Prize Foundation and governed by an independent trust with an endowment of HK$2.5bn. Through a series of initiatives, the prize aims to establish a platform for the global community to engage in conversation around education and to play a role in education philanthropy.
